The present invention is directed to an electromagnetic relay. Relays usually cover a relatively large area on a printed circuit board even though the terminal pins are generally arranged in comparatively small regions under a flange thereof. By contrast, the space between the flanges, that is, under the coil winding (for a horizontal coil axis) is typically not used for a contacting on the printed circuit board, so that this surface region of the printed circuit board is lost for the wiring. Although an unexploited space would already be present under and next to the winding due to the cylindrical winding, this space is also enclosed in a cuboid housing given encapsulation of the relay, so that it can no longer be externally utilized. The cuboid housing is selected because this is the simplest way to implement a seal between a cap extending down to the surface of the printed circuit board and a corresponding bottom plate. Given traditional sealing, casting resin is applied onto the bottom part in the region of the lower terminating surface and is distributed to all sealing seams and passages in one and the same plane, for example by capillary channels.
German reference DE 37 06 100 Al discloses a chamber indented from a lower terminating surface upward toward the winding that is provided in the bottom part, a component also being potentially arranged in this indented chamber under the relay. The sealing seam between the cap and bottom part, however, also extends all around in the region of the lower terminating surface in this case, so that the chamber, at any rate, is no longer accessible after the relay has been put in place on the printed circuit board. A further disadvantage of the large-area, cuboid housing is that the entire surface under the winding cannot be aerated and cleaned in soldering and washing processes, and as a result residues of soldering agents and washing agents remain in this region. A component in such a chamber could suffer damage from such residues.